Two teenage young men, working the parking lot of a local Walmart to bring in carts were shot and killed in northwest Phoenix on Tuesday in a tragic turn of events there.
Here's a link to the story...
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0824walmartslay24.html
Cart Workers Be Careful...
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azskyman
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Cart Workers Be Careful...
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Miss Mary
OMG, that is an awful tragedy. What is it with Wal-Mart and stories like this? Sorry, had to ask that question.....
Just last month as the sudden heat wave gripped our area, a homeless lady living in her car with her dog, was found dead. She had been staying in the Wal-Mart parking lot for at least 6 weeks. It was such a tragic story. She lost her apt. several months earlier and had told friends she found a new place to live, out of pride. She didn't want to reveal she was living out of her car. Her friends were horrified she didn't tell them the truth. I'm horrified that Wal-Mart officials didn't get her help. Are there other homeless people living in Wal-Mart parking lots? Sorry for that tangent, topic hijack, but Wal-Mart parking lots sound like crazy places to be.
Mary
Just last month as the sudden heat wave gripped our area, a homeless lady living in her car with her dog, was found dead. She had been staying in the Wal-Mart parking lot for at least 6 weeks. It was such a tragic story. She lost her apt. several months earlier and had told friends she found a new place to live, out of pride. She didn't want to reveal she was living out of her car. Her friends were horrified she didn't tell them the truth. I'm horrified that Wal-Mart officials didn't get her help. Are there other homeless people living in Wal-Mart parking lots? Sorry for that tangent, topic hijack, but Wal-Mart parking lots sound like crazy places to be.
Mary
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Josephine96
It scared the living daylights out of me-
azsnowman
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Missed the 1800 hr news, haven't heard WHY this NUT job did it.......they had friends and family on the 1200 news from the store, WalMart is supporting a "On Site Memorial" for the men and they're going to help the families of both men.....one was 30 something with 2 kids, the other was 18.
Dennis
Dennis
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azsnowman
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Here's the latest from azcentral night edition:
http://www.azcentral.com
Motive unclear in Wal-Mart shootings
Pat Flannery, David Madrid and Christine Romero
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 24, 2005 11:00 AM
A northwest Valley man seething with anger turned a Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot into a shooting gallery Tuesday, police said, leaving two store employees dead and investigators stumped for a motive.
The suspect, Ed Liu, 53, appears to be mentally disturbed, according to court paperwork released Wednesday. The paperwork accuses Lui of shooting the employees to the ground, reloading his .40 caliber handgun and then shooting them several more times while they lay on the ground.
The court filing said Liu was mentally disturbed but did not give any details. advertisement
Glendale police previously said it doesn't appear Liu knew the victims or had a vendetta against them or Wal-Mart.
"He just went crazy," said Chuck O'Leary, 26, of Peoria, whose wife, Kara, 28, witnessed part of the mayhem as she walked into the store shortly after 1 p.m. "She said the guy just went ballistic and starting firing off shots."
The suspect was tracked to a nearby retirement community and arrested a few hours later.
Dead at the scene of the fusillade were Anthony Spangler, 18, and Patrick Graham, 36. Both Glendale men were collecting grocery carts in the parking lot near 83rd Avenue and Union Hills Drive when, according to police, Liu drove into the parking lot and angrily pumped them full of bullets without any known motive.
Graham was married and had two children.
Witnesses said one of the men appeared to have tried to crawl under a car for protection before being shot.
"For some unknown reason, he decided to tragically end these guys' lives," Officer Mike Peña, a Glendale police spokesman, said at a late-evening news conference.
"There's no motive at all," he said. "It's a random act."
David Kost, 25, said he was in his vehicle in the parking lot when he heard about seven shots fired. He ducked to the floorboards and came out when the firing stopped.
He said he saw one man, clearly dead, lying half under a car. Then someone shouted that there was another injured man, he said.
Kost and two other men, one who asked for rubber gloves and an emergency medical kit, rushed over to the man.
The victim was still alive when they found him in the shopping cart corral. Kost said he asked the man if he could hear him or if he was all right.
"He just looked at me," Kost said. "Every couple seconds, he would quiver."
Kost, a resident of Arrowhead Ranch, was horrified that the shooting happened in his community.
"I live in a nice area of town," he said. "This doesn't happen here."
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Delia Garcia called the violence a "tragic event."
"Our thoughts are with the victims and their families," she said.
Customers and employees described a scene of pandemonium inside the store immediately after the shooting, as screams about the bloody scene panicked people who didn't know where the gunman was.
"It was just pure chaos," said Lisa Crider, 35, of Peoria. "We heard everybody screaming, 'There's a shooting! There's a shooting! There's a shooting!' "
One shopper, Catherine Adams, 48, of Glendale, said, "Word of mouth started spreading inside, and I just got out. I saw people panicking and going toward the front."
The store was closed to new customers almost immediately, as a small army of police descended on the scene. Confused shoppers already inside were allowed to complete their purchases, while stunned employees milled near the entrances, reliving the scene and weeping over the deaths of their co-workers.
Only yards away, police reconstruction experts spent the rest of the day poring over a wide swath of the asphalt deck for evidence, with nearly 30 placards marking the bullet casings and other minute clues in the area. There were so many shoppers' and employees' cars trapped inside the crime scene that Glendale and Peoria transit vans arrived in late afternoon to usher people home.
Liu was taken into custody at his home, in Peoria's Westbrook Village retirement community, about four hours after the attack. Peña said a pair of bystanders had followed Liu's vehicle out of the parking lot, chasing him into his own neighborhood before losing him. Police traced his address through his license plate, and his arrest came after a police team staked out his house and sent in a robot to negotiate his surrender.
"He peacefully came out with his hands raised," Peña said.
Investigators recovered what they believe was the handgun used in the crime, and they questioned Liu deep into the evening. Peña said late Tuesday that Liu "seems very calm; he answers 'yes' and 'no' questions."
Neighbors later told reporters that they knew little about Liu.
Peña, however, said Liu was unmarried, had no children and has lived in the area about seven years. A gray Toyota that police believe was the getaway vehicle was still parked in the driveway late Tuesday, and animal-control officers arrived shortly after his arrest to take custody of the man's dog.
The Wal-Mart store is about 3 years old and is in an upper-income area. Median home prices in the area were $198,000 last year, well above the overall Valley median price of $175,000.
Vernon Anders, 72, a Wal-Mart greeter standing just inside the store, said it was a busy day like any other when he heard the shots - six or seven, to his memory - ring out in "two different sets."
Moments later, Katie Stephens, 21,of Glendale, a hairdresser in the store's salon, said she saw a woman run inside.
"She was running in the front saying, 'My brother has been shot! Close the doors! Lock the doors!' " Stephens said.
The panic continued, and another woman ran inside the salon and dialed 911, Stephens said. She said she took cover in the back of the salon.
Phoenix resident Cesar Urivi, 16, was sitting on a bench just inside the store's southern doors, waiting to visit a friend who works there, when "I heard a whole bunch of gunshots." Moments later, he heard over the store's intercom system, "Code Brown! Code Brown!" He said he understood that meant there had been a shooting.
Anders tried to keep people inside the store in the aftermath. But, at the same time, people were heading toward the doors in droves as word spread.
Glendale police said the violence was caught on security tape. Wal-Mart touts, on signs posted throughout its parking lots, that activities there are taped. Cameras line the store's facade. Police continued to examine the tapes late Tuesday.
In the end, most bystanders seemed stunned that such a bloody episode had visited an area notable mostly for its uneventful suburban calm.
"That's why I like living here," said Stephens, who has been a Wal-Mart salon worker for two months.
Anders, an employee there since the store opened, said it never has had problems before.
Company officials said the store would reopen for business today. Meanwhile, they worked late Tuesday to take care of the rest of the employees, whom spokeswoman Garcia described as "devastated."
Crider, an off-duty employee shopping at the time, said it was a scene she will never forget.
"It's just so shocking," she said. "I've never seen a dead body before."
Staff writer Emily Bittner and the Associated Press contributed to this article.
http://www.azcentral.com
Motive unclear in Wal-Mart shootings
Pat Flannery, David Madrid and Christine Romero
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 24, 2005 11:00 AM
A northwest Valley man seething with anger turned a Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot into a shooting gallery Tuesday, police said, leaving two store employees dead and investigators stumped for a motive.
The suspect, Ed Liu, 53, appears to be mentally disturbed, according to court paperwork released Wednesday. The paperwork accuses Lui of shooting the employees to the ground, reloading his .40 caliber handgun and then shooting them several more times while they lay on the ground.
The court filing said Liu was mentally disturbed but did not give any details. advertisement
Glendale police previously said it doesn't appear Liu knew the victims or had a vendetta against them or Wal-Mart.
"He just went crazy," said Chuck O'Leary, 26, of Peoria, whose wife, Kara, 28, witnessed part of the mayhem as she walked into the store shortly after 1 p.m. "She said the guy just went ballistic and starting firing off shots."
The suspect was tracked to a nearby retirement community and arrested a few hours later.
Dead at the scene of the fusillade were Anthony Spangler, 18, and Patrick Graham, 36. Both Glendale men were collecting grocery carts in the parking lot near 83rd Avenue and Union Hills Drive when, according to police, Liu drove into the parking lot and angrily pumped them full of bullets without any known motive.
Graham was married and had two children.
Witnesses said one of the men appeared to have tried to crawl under a car for protection before being shot.
"For some unknown reason, he decided to tragically end these guys' lives," Officer Mike Peña, a Glendale police spokesman, said at a late-evening news conference.
"There's no motive at all," he said. "It's a random act."
David Kost, 25, said he was in his vehicle in the parking lot when he heard about seven shots fired. He ducked to the floorboards and came out when the firing stopped.
He said he saw one man, clearly dead, lying half under a car. Then someone shouted that there was another injured man, he said.
Kost and two other men, one who asked for rubber gloves and an emergency medical kit, rushed over to the man.
The victim was still alive when they found him in the shopping cart corral. Kost said he asked the man if he could hear him or if he was all right.
"He just looked at me," Kost said. "Every couple seconds, he would quiver."
Kost, a resident of Arrowhead Ranch, was horrified that the shooting happened in his community.
"I live in a nice area of town," he said. "This doesn't happen here."
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Delia Garcia called the violence a "tragic event."
"Our thoughts are with the victims and their families," she said.
Customers and employees described a scene of pandemonium inside the store immediately after the shooting, as screams about the bloody scene panicked people who didn't know where the gunman was.
"It was just pure chaos," said Lisa Crider, 35, of Peoria. "We heard everybody screaming, 'There's a shooting! There's a shooting! There's a shooting!' "
One shopper, Catherine Adams, 48, of Glendale, said, "Word of mouth started spreading inside, and I just got out. I saw people panicking and going toward the front."
The store was closed to new customers almost immediately, as a small army of police descended on the scene. Confused shoppers already inside were allowed to complete their purchases, while stunned employees milled near the entrances, reliving the scene and weeping over the deaths of their co-workers.
Only yards away, police reconstruction experts spent the rest of the day poring over a wide swath of the asphalt deck for evidence, with nearly 30 placards marking the bullet casings and other minute clues in the area. There were so many shoppers' and employees' cars trapped inside the crime scene that Glendale and Peoria transit vans arrived in late afternoon to usher people home.
Liu was taken into custody at his home, in Peoria's Westbrook Village retirement community, about four hours after the attack. Peña said a pair of bystanders had followed Liu's vehicle out of the parking lot, chasing him into his own neighborhood before losing him. Police traced his address through his license plate, and his arrest came after a police team staked out his house and sent in a robot to negotiate his surrender.
"He peacefully came out with his hands raised," Peña said.
Investigators recovered what they believe was the handgun used in the crime, and they questioned Liu deep into the evening. Peña said late Tuesday that Liu "seems very calm; he answers 'yes' and 'no' questions."
Neighbors later told reporters that they knew little about Liu.
Peña, however, said Liu was unmarried, had no children and has lived in the area about seven years. A gray Toyota that police believe was the getaway vehicle was still parked in the driveway late Tuesday, and animal-control officers arrived shortly after his arrest to take custody of the man's dog.
The Wal-Mart store is about 3 years old and is in an upper-income area. Median home prices in the area were $198,000 last year, well above the overall Valley median price of $175,000.
Vernon Anders, 72, a Wal-Mart greeter standing just inside the store, said it was a busy day like any other when he heard the shots - six or seven, to his memory - ring out in "two different sets."
Moments later, Katie Stephens, 21,of Glendale, a hairdresser in the store's salon, said she saw a woman run inside.
"She was running in the front saying, 'My brother has been shot! Close the doors! Lock the doors!' " Stephens said.
The panic continued, and another woman ran inside the salon and dialed 911, Stephens said. She said she took cover in the back of the salon.
Phoenix resident Cesar Urivi, 16, was sitting on a bench just inside the store's southern doors, waiting to visit a friend who works there, when "I heard a whole bunch of gunshots." Moments later, he heard over the store's intercom system, "Code Brown! Code Brown!" He said he understood that meant there had been a shooting.
Anders tried to keep people inside the store in the aftermath. But, at the same time, people were heading toward the doors in droves as word spread.
Glendale police said the violence was caught on security tape. Wal-Mart touts, on signs posted throughout its parking lots, that activities there are taped. Cameras line the store's facade. Police continued to examine the tapes late Tuesday.
In the end, most bystanders seemed stunned that such a bloody episode had visited an area notable mostly for its uneventful suburban calm.
"That's why I like living here," said Stephens, who has been a Wal-Mart salon worker for two months.
Anders, an employee there since the store opened, said it never has had problems before.
Company officials said the store would reopen for business today. Meanwhile, they worked late Tuesday to take care of the rest of the employees, whom spokeswoman Garcia described as "devastated."
Crider, an off-duty employee shopping at the time, said it was a scene she will never forget.
"It's just so shocking," she said. "I've never seen a dead body before."
Staff writer Emily Bittner and the Associated Press contributed to this article.
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So terrible.
Re: Cart Workers Be Careful...
azskyman wrote:Two teenage young men, working the parking lot of a local Walmart to bring in carts were shot and killed in northwest Phoenix on Tuesday in a tragic turn of events there.
Here's a link to the story...
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0824walmartslay24.html
only one was a teenager, the other was 36.
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